Mike Miliard
The merger agreement between Merge Healthcare Incorporated and Boston-based AMICAS, Inc. was finalized on Wednesday, creating a leading medical imaging software and healthcare IT provider with strong customer relationships, significant cross selling capabilities, and a solid international presence.
GE Healthcare and Dübendorf, Switzerland-based Ascom Wireless Solutions have announced plans to launch a wireless hospital-wide messaging system, designed to improve workflow and communication for healthcare providers.
Some of the leading lights of healthcare IT gathered for a Monday afternoon symposium titled "Healthcare In Transition: How Information Technology is Remaking Medicine."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched a new initiative to address safety problems associated with external infusion pumps – devices that deliver fluids such as nutrients and medications into a patient's body in a controlled manner.
IBM has signed a business process services agreement with athenahealth, the provider of Web-based business services for physician practices.
Brandeis University has announced that it will offer a new online master's degree in health and medical informatics – part of its effort to help create the 50,000 new IT jobs necessary to usher the healthcare system "fully into the digital age."
Despite the promise of healthcare IT, an article by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reveals that "scores of reports on file with the Food and Drug Administration detail consequences to patients when an electronic medical record system fails" and show that a central function of CPOE "has been linked to instances in which patients died or suffered serious injuries."
GEMMS, the developer of electronic medical record systems for cardiology practices, has announced that it will expand its operations, creating as many as 69 new jobs in greater Indianapolis by 2015. The EMR maker plans to invest up to $2.1 million to grow its headquarters and software development operations in Carmel.
California software company Oracle plans to acquire Phase Forward, a Waltham, Mass.-based maker of software applications for life sciences companies and healthcare providers.
Verizon Wireless has announced an initiative with Foxboro, Mass.-based BL Healthcare and a number of customers and third-party providers to jointly trial next-generation solutions for the delivery of remote healthcare applications and services to patients.